Practical Ways To Digitally Declutter Your Devices
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Clutter isn’t just something tangible that accumulates around you, it’s also something that collects and festers in places like your smartphone, your laptop and in your email inbox. Just think about how constantly connected we all are for a second. Emails, text messages, photos, friend requests, pdfs, and other files incessantly swarm our devices and online accounts every single day. While many of us are used to it at this point, all of those files, photos, messages, etc. are slowing down our devices and ourselves.
Want to get a handle on your digital clutter? Then take a look at these different ways to detox the clutter that has taken up residence in your connected devices!
Deleting Everything Isn’t Practical
While it would be great to do a clean sweep and simply delete everything that is taking up space on your connected devices, that isn’t practical or recommended. This is a process that takes time and assessment. Go through your emails and delete the ones that are unimportant. Evaluate the photos and files saved on your computer and delete any duplicates you have saved. Scroll through the contacts in your phone and purge the contact information of the people that you no longer communicate with.
Deconstruct Your Desktop
A lot of stuff gathers on your desktop. Shortcuts to applications, folders, downloads and other clutter tends to collect there. Review that buildup and erase any old files, doubles, and get rid of shortcuts to websites, applications and locations that you don’t visit on a regular basis. The next time you need to visit one of those places simply search for it through the Start Menu.
Evaluate Your Email Inbox
One of the most cluttered digital places in our lives, undoubtedly, is our email inboxes. Emails deposit into our inboxes on a daily basis during all times of the day. Reduce the amount of messages coming into your inbox by unsubscribing to newsletters you don’t read, and spammy promotions to stores you don’t shop at. You can also use filters to keep some of the clutter at bay, and utilize labels and folders to keep your emails orderly. Don’t rely too heavily on email Labels and Folders though. Sure it’s organized, but it’s still clutter that’s taking up space in your email inbox. Always aim to erase more over categorizing your emails.
Smartphone Storage
Save on smartphone storage space by deleting the photos that are stored on your phone and backing them up to another device, like your laptop or home computer. If you have a gmail account you can back your photos up right in Google Photos. If you use Apple products you can back your photos up through Apple Photos.You can also make room on your smartphone by uninstalling apps, deleting your caches and utilizing cloud storage.
If you’re someone who listens to music through your smartphone, do not save all of those files on your phone and listen that way. Instead, use a music streaming service like Google Music, Pandora, Spotify, etc. to listen to music. This will keep music files from littering your smartphone.
Social Media Overload
We are repeatedly inundated with photos, status updates, gifs, quotes, videos and people’s inane thoughts through Social Media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. This constant connectedness has actually been proven to make us feel more socially isolated, and not any less lonely. Our addiction to Social Media has plenty of other negative effects as well, many in relation to our mental health and psychological well-being.
Increased time spent on Social Media is connected to more dissatisfaction with one’s own life, more comparison of oneself to others (Which is totally not healthy!) and more depression linked to envy produced by seeing what others are sharing on Social Media. Make it a point to disconnect more, spend less time on Social Media and delete some of your accounts. You don’t need to have an account for every single Social Media outlet that comes out. Choose a few and stick with those. 
Seeing things on your feed or timeline that upset you in some way or another? Then choose not to see! Facebook has a feature called unfollow and unfollowing is different than defriending. When you unfollow someone, you’re still their friend on Facebook, but you no longer see their updates in your feed. Twitter has a similar setting called muting that will keep you from seeing the muted account on your timeline. Best of all, these unfollowed and muted users have no idea that you’ve muted or unfollowed them, making it the perfect drama free solution to filtering your Social Media.
Remember, Social Media is basically the highlight reel of someone’s life. It’s the parts of their life that they want you to see, not the nitty gritty, everyday stuff that they choose to keep to themselves. With that in mind, take everything you see on Social Media with a grain of salt!
Keep Up With Decluttering Your Devices
As mentioned above, things get sent to us every single day so decluttering your digital devices isn’t just a one time fix all. It’s something you have to keep up with and dedicate time to on a regular basis. You don’t need to spend hours every week deleting and organizing your devices, but putting aside a few minutes each day to do so is a prudent way to keep digital clutter at bay.
Feeling motivated to tackle the tangible clutter that’s taking up residence in your home? Then take a look at our tips for cutting out clutter in each room of your home! Need further assistance getting rid of clutter? Then let Zippboxx take some of your stuff off of your hands!